The purpose of this competing continuation application is to request funds for the further expansion of the research programs of the Howard University Center for the Health Sciences. It includes nineteen protocols from members of the faculty of the Colleges of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy and Pharmacal Sciences. Departments with representation in this application are: 1) The College of Medicine; Anesthesiology, Medicine, Microbiology, Pediatrics an Child Health, Physiology and Biophysics, and Surgery; 2) The College of Dentistry; Histopathology; 3) The College of Nursing: Community and Mental Health Nursing; and 4) The College of Pharmacy and Pharmacal Sciences: Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutics. The majority of the sub-projects focus upon several diseases that disproportionately affect African American and other minority populations, including asthma, cancer, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, vitiligo, and renal and hepatic diseases. A critical mass of remarkably talented minority clinical and basic scientists has been assembled to address these diseases by generating new information that can impact upon their pathogenesis. All of these projects are consistent with the goal of this program which is to provide the environment and resources necessary for interdisciplinary collaboration between basic and clinical scientists to occur. Another goal is to provide minority health professional students with the opportunity to participate in research on a short-term basis. Each clinical investigator has, therefore, requested funds to support a medical or dental student. Support has also been requested for graduate students who will complete their dissertations under the tuteledge of MBRS investigators. It is expected that these interactions between basic and clinical scientists and health professional and graduate students will complement the endeavors of each of these groups of individual. It is also anticipated that investigators supported by this MBRS Program will make meaningful contributions to the scientific literature through the publication of their findings in peer reviewed journals and by presenting their data at meetings of appropriate professional societies. Health professional and graduate students will be encouraged to participate in local, regional, and national forums at which they may share their data with their peers from other institutions. Finally, the ultimate goal is to further enhance the capability of the faculty of the Howard University Center for the health Sciences to fully participate in the research enterprise.